In the latest round of legal wrangling, Righthaven filed motions in federal court in Las Vegas on Monday complaining about what it called the “scorched earth judgment enforcement efforts” of Righthaven defendant Wayne Hoehn and his attorneys.Next, Hitler will start complaining about aggressive warfare by the Russians. If there is anyone who qualifies for the phrase "scorched earth ... enforcement efforts," it is Righthaven. I look forward to the day when Righthaven's CEO Steve Gibson is found personally liable for Righthaven's filing of complaints based on a fraudulent claim of owning the copyrights to various news stories. I look forward to seeing Gibson personally bankrupted, and ideally, sent to prison for fraud.
As a number of people have pointed out over the last few months, you could teach an entire semester class on legal ethics just from the autopsy on Righthaven's practices.
What I find amazing is that Gibson and Righthaven have never been called before the State Bar for ethical violations. In California, and I assume in other states as well, in order to be admitted to the bar, in addition to passing the @#$%^&*! three day marathon writing exam, you have to take a multiple choice test on legal ethics and complete a report to send to the State Bar to show you have good character and no record of crimes of moral turpitude.
ReplyDeleteAnd I know of people who have been disbarred because they write a check to the client to pay the recovery before the check clears, so that's co-mingling client funds, or get sanctioned by the bar for failing to return phone calls.
State Bar Associations mostly ignore the larger practices in favor of microscopic supervision of sole practitioners.
The Righthaven scandal does not reflect well on the State Bar, which is supposed to be watching for this sort of thing.
One of Righthaven's attorneys was (the last time I checked) editor of the Nevada Bar Association journal. I also understand that the Nevada Bar has a rather low standard of acceptable behavior.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the Righthaven coverage in your blog. Windy Wilson gives voice to the scandal that betrayal of public trust gives when authority ignores and neglects when offenders go unsanctioned in any way.
ReplyDeleteYou state in particular and others perceive in general the justice earned by Righthaven culprits. I especially like the "autopsy" remark.